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Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE Oral History tape.
Note from Glen PITRE: The official project was named “Memories of Terrebonne”. Glen
PITRE was project director. “We were funded by The Terrebonne Parish Council, the
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Library of Congress”. This interview was
conducted by Emelia PITRE, an associate of Cote Blanche Productions, recorded on
December 11, 1984 at Chauvin, LA. Transcribed by Phillip CHAUVIN Jr.
Tape # 188
[We would like to have your name, when you were born and where you were born.]
My name is Eugenie C. LAPEYROUSE, I was born December 18, 1895 on Little Caillou. I was
married {16 Oct. 1921} to Eugene LAPEYROUSE {s/o Zephine LAPEYROUSE &
Louise BENOIT}. He died in {16 Jul.} 1944, he was 50 years old, he was born in 1893, I
have three children. I have two daughters, my son {Wallace LAPEYROUSE} died in
1937. I have one daughter {Jennie} married {26 Jul. 1941} to Earl {Joseph} CHAUVIN
and the other {Dulcie Mary b. 1 Jan. 1926} is married to Lawrence {J. B.} TRAHAN.
They both live on Little Caillou.
[Can you tell me about when you were growing up and how things were then.]
[What did your daddy do for a living?]
My daddy {Louis Volcar CHAVUIN} worked at a farm. I worked on the farm. I went to school
on Little Caillou. Mr. Edgar LAPEYROUSE was my teacher. I had several others
before, but I went to school when I was six years old. I went until the ninth grade. I had
to quit school, because I could not go to Houma to school. I stayed in the ninth grade but
one year. He taught me other subjects. The school was close to my house.
[Why you couldn’t go to school in Houma?]
Because we could not afford it, we were too poor. We were poor like rats. There were no busses
then, nothing. When the family used to go, we would go by horse and buggy.
[Your father owned a horse and buggy?]
No my grandpa {Aploda Louis CHAUVIN} had a horse and buggy. We would ride in it. We
didn’t have any. We would borrow it, to go to town.
[Were you born in this place?]
I was born on this side of the fire station.
[Did your father own the farm?]
No my father owned this farm. We lived with my grandpa and grandma, {Adele DUPLANTIS
CHAUVIN} after mama died {Euphrasie Frances STOUFFLET b. 6 Mar. 1870, d. 9
Mar. 1905, bur. Bisland Cem., Bourg, LA}. They took us down there, after mama died.
[How old were you when your mother died?]
My mother died when I was ten years old.
[What did she die of, do you know?]
She died of a tumor and she had a little baby, with that. My sister {Blanche CHAUVIN} is in
New Orleans, in the hospital.
[Is she there now?]
She is there now.
[How old is she?]
I was ten when she was born.
[When your mother died, you lived with your grandpa?]
[ ] Interviewer Emelia PITRE - { }Transcriber Phillip CHAUVIN Jr. – Proof reader Marcie CAVALIER
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Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE Oral History tape.
My mama gave the baby to her sister [1920 Census Ward 6, listed her in the family of Leo
ROBICHAUX and Odelia STOUFFLET ROBICHAUX, as a niece}. They were living
below Montegut.
[Is that the one that is in New Orleans now?]
Yes, she is in New Orleans now {Blanche CHAUVIN w/o Walter DUPLANTIS of Metairie, LA
d. 30 Jun. 1989}.
[When your mama died, she went to live over there?]
She was a little baby.
[You stayed with your grandpa all the time?]
For ten months.
[Where did you go afterward?]
We came and lived with daddy. We {siblings Adele Marie, Bernice Helene and Josh Joseph}
took care of daddy.
[Your daddy stayed here?]
Yes we took care of my daddy.
[You were by yourself?]
Me and my sister {Adele Marie}. She is dead, Mrs. Dave REDMOND {Adele Marie
CHAUVIN m. 6 Jan. 1922 David REDMOND}. She was my other sister. I have another
sister {Bernice Helene CHAUVIN} that was married {23 Jun. 1919} to a {Lucius}
LOTTINGER. She was married to Judge LOTTINGER’s son.
[Is the Judge dead?]
No, the Judge is not dead, but his daddy is dead, his uncle, my brother-in-law.
[How was it growing up with no mother?]
It was hard, I had to work in the fields.
[You did not go to school then?]
No I quit school. I was thirteen.
[Were you married then?]
I was almost twenty when I married.
[You did the household work?]
The household work. We had a great big house.
[When you got married, you lived with your daddy or moved?]
I lived with my daddy after. My sister got married after.
[Your husband stayed here?]
My husband stayed here until he died.
[Your husband was a farmer, too?]
My husband was a fisherman. He hunted and trapped, and then he went on the boats. This and
that, all kind of things.
[Did he talk to you about the hunting, fishing and trapping?]
[Was he gone for a long while, when he left?]
Sometimes, I had my little girl, my little baby, I don’t remember how old my baby {Daisie}was.
[Do you remember any epidemics? Like yellow fever?
We had the flu, it was very bad, in the First World War. My husband went in there.
[Was it bad?]
[Your husband went in the war?]
The World War I. I belong to the American Legion.
[ ] Interviewer Emelia PITRE - { }Transcriber Phillip CHAUVIN Jr. – Proof reader Marcie CAVALIER
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Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE Oral History tape.
[Did he go overseas?]
Yes, he went overseas. He was in France and went to Germany.
[Do you have any pictures?]
Begin French conversation, interpretation by Jess BERGERON.
[Would you rather converse in French or English?]
I would rather speak in French.
[Ok, we will do it in French.]
My husband was in World War I.
[Do you have any pictures?]
I have pictures of him. I belong to the American Legion.
[Were there any stories he told you about the war?]
While my husband was in the service, he got the mumps and had to go in the hospital.
[Were you married then?]
No, he was a widower, he had been married to somebody else {m. 1st Elvine LEBOEUF d/o
Etienne LEBOEUF & Elizabeth GUIDRY}. When he came back, that is when we
married.
[What about the hurricanes?]
The hurricanes were very bad. The water was high. The water came all the way up the big oak
tree, we had in the front yard. We saved ourselves. We went to another house. When
we came back, the chimney was gone. The water did not come to the house, only to the
oak tree in the front yard.
[Did anybody lose their life?]
No. Some of my husband’s family had died. Some of them drowned and the water brought
them way up into the woods. My husband and his family passed a lot of misery, because
of that hurricane.
[What did you plant?]
We planted onions, cane and two types of potatoes.
[How many onions did you plant?]
It was a hundred and something, but I can’t remember. They hired somebody to help with the
crops. He also spent time in the war.
[Are you still planting the land today?]
My son-in-law plants the land.
[How far does the property go?]
It is 40 acres deep.
[Do you have oil wells on your property?]
No.
[What did you do with all you planted?]
We used some and sold some.
[How would you sell them?]
We had a wagon with a top on it and another wagon.
[What was your job, when you were planting all that?]
We would do a lot of hoeing. Planting onions, planting cane, planting corn and cutting cane. We
had a lot of misery, but I don’t regret any of it and feels blessed, for still being here.
[When cutting the cane, you did it yourselves or had some help?]
We hired somebody, we would hire people to help with the cane harvest.
[ ] Interviewer Emelia PITRE - { }Transcriber Phillip CHAUVIN Jr. – Proof reader Marcie CAVALIER
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Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE Oral History tape.
[What would you do with the cane, after you cut it?]
They would haul it to the bayou, and then we would put it in a barge and it would make the
round.
[Where did the barge bring the cane?]
I don’t really know.
[How would you do that?]
My husband was handling the hoist, and I would do the weighing.
[How would the cane get to the mill?]
Later they had a little track, with a train.
[What mill did you use?]
I don’t know.
{She started crying, thinking about the past.}
[Well, we will stop now.]
[Do you want to stop again.]
Do you have enough?
[Not really, but if you want to stop, we will stop.]
We will start again.
[Did the little car, just haul cane?]
It only hauled cane.
[In 1950, they had a sugarcane strike, do you remember that?]
There was no money, and they did not want to pay anybody. There was a man from the South
Coast, who said they had to pay the people who were working. They did not want to pay
me what she was worth, because she was a lady. She was doing the work of a man. The
man said yes, you have to pay her the same wages as a man. They would come get her,
and bring her to Montegut, so she could weigh the cane. She was making the same
amount of money as the men.
[When did the electricity come down? I know you were using coal oil.]
They passed around to see if enough people wanted electricity. They said if enough people
wanted electricity, they would give each family an electric iron.
[They gave you an electric iron?]
Yes.
[You must have felt like you were in hog heaven.]
It was very good to, have the electric iron. One time it caught a house on fire.
[How was the depression?]
It was bad. A lot of people were hurt by it.
[Did the government assist you?]
Nothing at all. People had no money. People would come around looking for work. She was
getting old and could not take care of herself. She hired some one to take care of the
housework. We signed papers and everything, and then we started getting some
assistance.
[Was this in the depression?]
No, we did not get any assistance during the depression.
[Do you remember the first tractors, did you get a tractor?]
No. The father of her son-in-law had a tractor.
[When you were a little girl, were there a lot of blacks around here?]
[ ] Interviewer Emelia PITRE - { }Transcriber Phillip CHAUVIN Jr. – Proof reader Marcie CAVALIER
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Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE Oral History tape.
Yes, there were a lot of blacks on the ridge and she cooked for some of the workers when they
were here.
[Did they mix?]
No, the black and white didn’t mix. When my husband died, there were a lot of blacks, asked if
they could come see him and pay their respects. I said oh yeah. There was a bunch that
came and saw him. Some of the whites had big eyes, seeing the blacks paying their
respects.
[They didn’t like that?]
They didn’t like that. The blacks were good to us, we all worked and we all worked together.
My husband would go to the store and there was a good black man working at the store.
[What did you call the ridge?]
That is Smith Ridge, it was all black in there. There was a gathering we would go to, we got on
the bus, and it would make the rounds, and pick up some blacks too.
[The bus picked up some blacks?]
Oh yeah.{It probably was a bus for the sugar mill, it would pass and pick up the workers, there
was probably just one bus.}
[In the olden days the whites treated the blacks like animals?]
Now, when you see them, the blacks invite you to go set at the table with them.
[Do you remember when the water and gas came?]
[Did you have cisterns?]
Yes.
[Did it run out?]
Oh yeah, when it didn’t rain it would run out. We went to the South Coast and get the drill and
drill a well. Just go in the garden and drill down until you hit water. They used well
water to give to the animals to drink.
[How did you wash your clothes?]
We used cistern water, and if it went dry, we used bayou water.
[How did you wash your clothes?]
Ritcha, ritchha, ritcha.
[On the scrub board?]
Yes, on the scrub board. It was my job every Monday morning to wash clothes.
[What did you do with the clothes, put it on lines?]
Yes, we had clotheslines. We still hang it on lines.
[How did you warm yourself?]
In front of the fireplace. We would get the wood from the woods. We would just go in the
woods and get some wood.
[How did you get the wood from the woods?]
By wagon.
End of tape # 188, begin tape # 189.
[Do your children speak French?]
Yes, all but one, that is learning to speak French, so we have to translate.
[Your grandchildren speak French or English?]
They talk English, but they understand.
[ ] Interviewer Emelia PITRE - { }Transcriber Phillip CHAUVIN Jr. – Proof reader Marcie CAVALIER
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Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE Oral History tape.
[Do your children speak French {repeat}?]
Yes, my children talk French.
[When you was a little girl, did the people talk English or French?]
Everybody spoke French, no English at all.
[The blacks, did they speak French?]
No, they all spoke English.
[I heard that you are a “treater”, what do you treat for?]
I treat for sore throat and I treat for worms.
[How do you treat?]
For sore throat, you rub and gargle with baking soda, now we don’t do any of that, we take AlkaSeltzer. {laughing}
[How do you treat for worms?]
Well, you take (?), garlic and turpentine and put it on a string around the neck of a kid. It was
kill or cure.
[Do you still treat for worms?]
No, they all go to the doctor now. I went to the doctor and he asked me, do you treat? I said oh
yeah, I treat. Then I will have to learn from you. {laughing}
[What do you do for earache?]
You use a rubber pump and flush the wax out of the ear.
[Did you have any doctors around?]
There was an old doctor at Montegut.
[Was it Doctor DUVAL?]
Yes.
[Were there any Priests around?]
Yes, we went to Catechism. We went to a church higher up, it was a chapel. {St. Elie?} It was a
church called Notre Dame. It was a chapel. We would go to St. Joseph Church. When
we went to church, we would walk, that was on Sunday. Sometimes we would go during
the week, too. The Priest would come from Montegut, the day before, in horse and
buggy. He would come down and stay with an old widow, and spend the night at her
house.
[Did you make your communion and all of that?]
Yes, we had to go to Montegut. We had to go to retreat. We had to walk there. It was only a
mile.
[Did you have to have a white dress to make your communion?]
Oh, yes. The white dress and the veil. For confirmation, we did have that. Her and her husband
made their first communion together, but did not know one another.
[What religion were the blacks?]
The whites were Catholics and black were Baptist.
[Do you remember when oil was discovered?]
I don’t remember.
[Do you know when the supermarket opened?
That’s a lot of years, I can’t remember.
[When you were a little girl, where would you go to get groceries?]
We would go to the store. There were stores around. We had to buy on credit. It was a cousin
that had a store.
[ ] Interviewer Emelia PITRE - { }Transcriber Phillip CHAUVIN Jr. – Proof reader Marcie CAVALIER
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Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE Oral History tape.
[What was the name of the store?]
It was Felix GUIDRY’s store.
[Was there any trucks passing to sell groceries?]
Yes, a SAVOIE from Bayou Blue would pass regular. He had a big truck.
[How would you pay for your groceries, did you pay with money or pay with goods they raised?]
We paid with money. When we sold stuff, we had the money, so we paid for what we needed.
We never had any problems to buy groceries. You did not buy anything you didn’t need.
[Would the people make their clothes or buy their clothes?]
We would make our clothes. There was an old lady who would come and show you how to sew
your clothes. The lady did not want to charge anything, but she was raised very poor, so
we would give her something.
[Would you go to Houma to buy clothes?]
Whenever we had a chance, a buggy would go. Sometimes grandpa would come and we would
go spend a few days with grandma.
[You would go to Houma to buy clothes, it wasn’t too often?]
It wasn’t too often.
[When was it you got your first automobile?]
It was after we were married. After a while, my husband sold it to my brother. You couldn’t go
hardly anywhere. The roads were always muddy.
[Was there any gravel roads?]
Oh, no.
[Was there any stories told you by your parents, anything about the rou-ga-roo’s?]
I don’t remember none of that.
[Did you go visiting?]
Yes, we would go visiting other people. We would go play cards. They would play some card
games, when they came back, they had to wash their faces.{smut?}
[Were there games the children played?]
There were plenty games the boys played, the girls played. They had trees around the house and
they had a covered porch and they played there. Her husband would go play cards in the
barn. It had a wooden floor. We would set up a table.
[Do you still have the table, they were playing on?]
Yes, it is still in the barn. Somebody had come and broke the table. I said you all will fix my
table and they fixed it.
[The same table that your husband played on?]
Yes, I have two tables, one in the house here and the other in the barn. The table in the house
was from when my mother was a young girl.
[Do you remember when people would pick up moss?]
Yes.
[How would you get the moss?]
We would pick it off the ground, pull on the branches and pull it off the trees and we had some
sticks with a hook, to catch the moss. We would make our mattresses with the moss.
When we feathered the chickens, we would use the feathers to make pillows with. When
we killed a chicken, we would take the feathers and dry them, and make pillow with
them. My son Larry would go hunting and we would take the feathers from the ducks.
He would dry the feathers and give them to me and I would make pillows with them. We
[ ] Interviewer Emelia PITRE - { }Transcriber Phillip CHAUVIN Jr. – Proof reader Marcie CAVALIER
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Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE Oral History tape.
would go get the moss, and dry it, and wait for the moss to turn black. They would go to
the bayou and wash the moss. We would make mattresses with that. We did not have
any cotton mattresses. We would collect all feathers we could and make a feather
mattress to use in the winter time. We had a bed with two tall posts and two small posts.
We had to put the mosquito netting over the bed, to sleep at night.
[Did you have any screens on the windows?]
No, we did not have any screens. When the screens came out, they put us some screens.
[Who put up the screens?]
A carpenter.
[Did you go to bed early?]
Most times we would go to bed early, sometimes we would read until eleven o’clock.
[The books or whatever you were reading in French or English?]
They were in English.
[Where would you get the books?]
We would get them from New York, through the mail.
[Would your parents and grandparents read in French?]
They did not know how to read. She learned to read by going to catechism, to learn how to read.
I would teach catechism too.
[How would you teach in English or French?]
In English, but when we were young it was only French. I taught over a hundred children.
[Did you have any honeybees?]
Oh yeah, they would come in some of the trees.
[Did you have any hives?]
We did not have any hives.
[What kind of animals did you have on the farm?]
We had pigs, cows and chickens.
[Did you milk the cows?]
Oh yeah. One time somebody wanted some eggs, but did not want to pay the price she wanted.
He finally come bought some eggs, and paid the price she wanted.
[Would you have a “boucherie”?]
Oh yes.
[What would you do with the meat?]
We would salt the meat and put it in big jars, a crock.
[How did you kill the hogs?]
The men would kill the hog and save the blood. Then take hot water and scrap off all the hair.
They would cook the blood to use in boudin. They would take the hot water, pour it over
the pig and scratch it. When they finished taking all the hair off, they would wash it real
good. Then they would cut the fat off with the skin and make the cracklings {fry the skin
in a deep skillet and remove the fat, it turns to a liquid, which they would cool, to make
lard}. They would take the good meat from the insides and make hog head cheese. You
would take that and put it outside to cool off, they did not have any ice box.
[How did you make the boudin?]
We did not have a grinder, so you had to cut everything real fine. You would use the blood to
make the red boudin and water to make the white boudin. You would clean the intestines
and push it up on a funnel like thing, so you could push the meat into it by hand.
[ ] Interviewer Emelia PITRE - { }Transcriber Phillip CHAUVIN Jr. – Proof reader Marcie CAVALIER
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Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE Oral History tape.
[Did you put some red peppers in?]
We put some hot pepper, black pepper, salt and some garlic in it.
[What did you do with the meat?]
The meat, we would salt it and put it in the “crock pots”. You had to fry it or cook it, before
putting it into the crocks.
[What else would he make?]
He would make a tomato sauce. My husband was crazy about that. He would cook it down. It
was almost like a jam.
[How long would the meat be good?]
Salted down it would last a long time.
[Would you milk the cows?]
Yes, we would milk the cows.
End of tape # 189, end of recording.
{Notes: Eugenie CHAUVIN LAPEYROUSE died June 28, 1992, age 96 years, and was buried
in St. Elie Cemetery, on Upper Little Caillou. She was survived by two daughters, Mrs.
Earl (Jennie) CHAUVIN and Mrs. Lawrence (Dulcie) TRAHAN, six granddaughters,
eight great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.}
[ ] Interviewer Emelia PITRE - { }Transcriber Phillip CHAUVIN Jr. – Proof reader Marcie CAVALIER